Ladislas Adam de Noskowski

Ladislas Adam de Noskowski (April 24, 1892—July 29, 1969) was a Polish-born Australian music critic and journalist. He also appeared in a few Hollywood productions in the mid-1910s.

Early life and education

Ladislas Adam de Noskowski was born on April 24, 1892, in Warsaw, Poland to Piotr de Noskowski and Stefanja (née Szawlowska). His father was a landowner, newspaper proprietor, and publisher. De Noskowski is an influential Polish family; the noted composer Zygmunt de Noskowski (1846-1909) was Ladislas' uncle.

Ladislas was raised Catholic and attended schools in Warsaw, and later in Switzerland. He did his higher education at the University of Warsaw, Poland, and the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris.

Career

In April 1911, de Noskowski came to Sydney, Australia, as a tourist. He was naturalized as an Australian citizen on May 4, 1914.

Shortly after his naturalization to Australia, he moved to California and pursued an acting career briefly. He performed under the stage name "Lawrence Noskowski" and appeared in a few Hollywood productions in the following two-three years. In 1915, he played "Mr. Dillon" in Murdock MacQuarrie's short drama The Sacrifice of Jonathan Gray alongside Edna Payne and Yona Landowska. The following year, he was seen as "Malcolm" in John Emerson's direction of William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth alongside Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Constance Collier, Wilfred Lucas, Spottiswoode Aitken, and Ralph Lewis.

In 1917, de Noskowski had a minor role in Douglas Gerrard's drama Polly Put the Kettle On. His last screen appearance was in the role of "Rev. Wm. Snodgrass" in the short drama Mary from America (1917) starring Douglas Gerrard, Ruth Clifford, Percy Challenger, and Doc Crane.

In 1916, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, noted Polish pianist and future prime minister of Poland, recruited de Noskowski as a secretary to help Paderewski in his political work for the Polish National Committee. Later, for a brief period, de Noskowski served as the secretary of Free Poland, a monthly journal financed by the Polish National Alliance.

In 1918, de Noskowski returned to Sydney and married Beatrice Barnett at Glebe Methodist Church. The couple settled at Neutral Bay, a suburb on the Lower North Shore of Sydney. Until 1919, he was a translator and interpreter on the staff of the Australian Military Forces censor. He was also classified as an A2 secondary teacher, and taught French, history, and geography at the Cleveland Street (1920-22), Mosman (1922-26), and Manly (1926) intermediate high schools.

In parallel, he worked as a music critic for the Sydney Mail and contributed articles (mainly on music, history, and Poland) to the Sydney Morning Herald, Evening News, Art in Australia, the Home, the Shakespearean Quarterly and Musical Australia. He resigned from his teaching positions in June 1926 to focus on journalism.

In 1925, de Noskowski was a critic for Australasian Phonograph Monthly and later served as an editor for it until 1929. In 1927-33, he wrote two weekly columns, "New Records" and "Player Piano Rolls", often also under the pseudonym "Paolo" for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 1929-31, he ran his own monthly, Australian Phonograph News. In those years, he was also a correspondent for the Chicago periodical, Musical Leader.

In 1933-45, de Noskowski was honorary consul-general for Poland in Australia, New Zealand and Western Samoa. When the Second World War broke out in 1939 he organized the Polish Relief Fund, which sent over £30,000 to London and persuaded the Australian government to grant £10,000 to the Polish Red Cross Society there. In 1942-45, he edited the monthly Polish and Central European Review, subsidized by the Polish government-in-exile.

After the Second World War, de Noskowski introduced musical programs for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. In 1953, he contributed a chapter on Polish explorer and geologist Paweł Strzelecki's biography The Count: A Life of Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki (authored by Geoffrey Rawson.)

Later, de Noskowski became an examiner in French and in 1959 prepared two textbooks for senior French classes in high schools.

Personal life

De Noskowski married Beatrice Barnett at Glebe Methodist Church in Sydney in 1918. They had a son, Paul, a radio engineer, and an adopted daughter.

Death

On April 11, 1969, de Noskowski got knocked down by a car and suffered severe head injuries. He died in a hospital at Neutral Bay, Sydney, on July 29, 1969, at age 77.